Wellington: New Zealand Cricket appear to be pushing ahead with plans to trial day-night first class matches as they build towards hosting their inaugural pink ball home test against England in 2018.
\nNZC released their 2016\/17 domestic fixture list on Wednesday and Wellington Regional Stadium, which has never hosted a first class match and has been used solely for day-night limited-overs international cricket, is to host one of the Plunket Shield games scheduled to begin on March 6.
\nAuckland\u2019s Eden Park and Hamilton\u2019s Seddon Park, both of which have lights, will also host matches starting on March 6.
\nAll three games have not had their start times confirmed, while every oter Plunket Shield match in the 2016\/17 season has a traditional start time of 10:30 am.
\nOnly one of the other venues scheduled to host first class cricket this season, Napier\u2019s McLean Park, has lights. All of the Plunket Shield matches there are scheduled as day games.
\nNZC has said they hoped to play their first day-night test match at home against England in 2018.
\nNew Zealand played Australia in the inaugural day-night test in Adelaide last year and while the ball swung appreciably and batsmen said they found it difficult to see after twilight, administrators felt the interest generated had been sufficient to continue to explore the concept.
\nNext year\u2019s Plunket Shield matches should give NZC the opportunity to test the conditions likely to be faced by both sides in 2018, with the England tour pencilled in for mid-February to late March.
\nEden Park has been designated the first test on that tour, with the second at Christchurch\u2019s Hagley Oval, which does not have lights.
\nNZC had considered holding a round of first class day-night matches earlier this year with an eye to playing one of their tests against South Africa next March with the pink ball, but had to scrap the idea after McLean Park\u2019s lights were deemed not strong enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wellington: New Zealand Cricket appear to be pushing ahead with plans to trial day-night first class matches as they build towards hosting their inaugural pink ball home test against England in 2018. NZC released their 2016\/17 domestic fixture list on Wednesday and Wellington Regional Stadium, which has never hosted a first class match and has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n